BLACK THE SKY (USA-Il): “Simplistic Mechanics Of Deformable Bodies” MCd 2007 Epitomite

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Black The Sky - Simplistic Mechanics Of Deformable BodiesI am not sure I will be able to explain the reason why I didn’t like this Ep, but my problem is that I really cannot find any interesting elements in here and I cannot explain why. It might just be that each one of these tracks is quite forgettable. Black The Sky is the new band of ex-Lividity drummer Mr. James Whitehurst. And it just plain sounds as if the band was founded somewhere in 1998 or ’99. Last millennium’s end was an year or limbo for Death Metal, slightly before the Internet became popular and the revival of old school Metal begun taking ground. It was the time when bands contemporary to Umbilical Strangulation, Prophecy, Fleshgrind and a score of other similar ones were releasing a huge quantity of really uninteresting demos and albums. A formless breed of a new guttural Death Metal scene which looking hindsight, was appallingly plain (with some exceptions, some bands were actually quite interesting and survived to this day, see Necrotic Disgorgement).  This Black The Sky‘s Ep has a rather good production but other than this – it is terribly flat. This band plays a contaminated form of late nineties American Death Metal and late hour Hard Core with a particular eye towards slow crunches and power metal chugs but also adorned with a form of pervasive new-school HC melody a la Integrity. The vocals are mid-deep and sometimes have higher peaks, but I cannot count really powerful riffs to make my day or even one memorable track. The worse thing is that the vocals just follow the flow of the muted palm riffs and this a scheme that just sound so dreadfully green, not to mention the riffs seem to be cut and paste without a real concept behind. It goes fast now, slow then, repeat twice… not my cup of tea. The voice in the intro that says “Time To Play” is also identical to the one used in Broken Hope‘s “Loathing” album…  I guess it’s from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hm.  I cannot say it’s a bad album becouse in the end there are good ideas and no clear weak spots, but I am afraid the problem is structural. Professional cover art and excellent work of graphics for the booklet and packaging, although I am not particularly enthusiastic about abstract subjects.

FAECES ERUPTION (Hol): s/t split Cd with FLATV5 2007 Grindfest/Urethra

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Faeces Eruption - splitAs usual, things get hotter when we are talking about Faeces Eruption. This band plays sick and blasting goregrind the real Dutch way, in the vein of Tumour and Acrotomophilia. Excessively soaked sound, hyper-harmonized hog vocals, gruesomely chaotic riffs that tend to blend in the background and sick pathological song titles. Geert here does everything, from drum programming to bass work, seems like Holland has a good share of one man projects playing Goregrind, maybe an offshoot of their formerly huge electronic music scene. I listened through and through the album 5 times and yet I cannot understand exactly the difference between the two productions as announced by the label. The sound seems quite similar to me but according to the info sheet, the second part should be way heavier with multiple bass lines. What else to say, this is a real massacre to pump up at full volume in the parking lot front of a cinema so you can look the horror on the face of common people. Multilayered grotesque vocals and one million bpm drum bloodbath, so adorable.

FLATV5 (Cze): s/t split Cd with FAECES ERUPTION (Hol) 2007 Grindfest/Urethra

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Flatv5 - splitLately I have not been listening to much goregrind with drum machine, it all just kinda got me saturated with dozens of mostly pointless bedroom projects. But I recognize something good when I hear it, and this Flatv5 one man product does a nice work. The best part in the whole project is the songs are made up an extremely good guitarwork, reminding more of moshpit grindcore a la Neuropathia or Ahumado Granujo, rather than sludgy German stuff. The vocals are a mix of liquid gargles and hoarse screams, which are used mostly as an instrument (Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition-style) as I strongly doubt there are any lyrics here. George also uses some burps and animal squeals to spice things up and it works nice. Even if the songs are fast, it really sounds a bit lighter and simpler than the Faeces Eruption part but I admit I liked this band I didn’t know before. Flatvs5 is a project of Definitive Verdict member Geroge Prczaag, which recently moved from Metal to cyberworks. Even if one man projects are usually boring, this is a good band with lots of good ideas. You have to like relentless drum machine gunnery to properly appreciate it – though. Nice cover art , if somewhat clichèd.

INCINERITOR (Ita): “Morbid Iconoclasm” MCd 2007 Skullbuster

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Incineritor - Morbid

It is really great to hear that the passion for old school Death Metal (sigh, I really wish I could write only Death Metal but people would misunderstand my words if I exclude the words “old school”, wouldn’t they?) is intact nowadays more than ever. One of the few good things of the Internet generations, is getting in touch with other people form all around the world which were listening to the same albums you did 15+ years ago. But even as cool is to hear fresh new faces in the underground scene discarding the bollocks of today’s technical wanking in favor of morbidity and obscurity. For a few years I thought it was just a matter of nostalgia when one sticks to old sonorities, but when you see people that were barely born at the time the classic Death Metal records were released playing the real shit, well you realize there actually IS something different in the “old ways”. And it looks as if this band knows it.

This Incineritor (?) debut Ep reeks of dust and cobwebs – the riffs have a demo-level minimalism but the concept beneath this band’s existence is rather clear. The drummer’s primitive bashing coalesce with Matt’s guttural vocals into a mix of old Hellhammer, Master and Cianide. Some attempts at playing slower, denser parts however do not seem to be particularly effective, as they just sound just a bit unripe and a tidbit too strident for my tastes (the guitar work is a bit rigid). This is an Ep for lovers of unrefined Death Metal with really no polishing at all. I also liked the vocals which have no forms of harmony at all. On the downside the four tracks tend to sound a bit similar, and there is a Unleashed-like gallop in track “Ritual Carnage” which worryingly sounds like tarantella, but other than that this is very good shit.

The lyrics (hey at last!) deal with demonic hordes and Armageddon, in pure Immolation “Here in After” style (but without biblical referrals). They’re nicely (ah!) old fashioned as well.

Other News…

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An unknown Chinese label was about to press a complete discography of Fear of God (the Swiss noise band). The band immediately stopped the press of the Cd and sued legal action if such a product was ever released. Seems like if you want to make a bootleg, you shouldn’t even thing about contacting the band first, just do it anonimously. I am 100% sure some other label from south America will be doing something identical soon and will be selling the copies on eBay. Too bad when the bands don’t recognize it.

Birdflesh “Mongo Musicale” is going to be released by Power It Up on vinyl. The band members are totally deranged and their aesthetics are ludicorous, but the riffs are pure gold. Always from Power It Up is a collection of singles and rare tracks from Haemorrhage called “Haemotology”.

Iron Pegasus from Germany released OFFICIAL Poison shirts! Also Messiah ones.

Brainwash/Lymphatic Phlegm split 7″ is OUT!!!

NOX (Hol): “Ixaxaar” Cd 2007 Earache

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Nox - Ixaxaar

This is the first time I am VERY disappointed of not having the lyrics for reading together with the promo package I got from the label. Somewhern in the last millennium I drove with my pals in Nefas up in Belgium for a legendary gig they had with Centurian, one of my favorite bands at the time which I really could not allow to miss (not to mention that beer house in Gent but let’s not digress). Fact is we had a long chat with Rob regarding the lyrics of Centurian, and the concepts behind its Choronzonic devotion. From what I remember, all this was some time before any of this MLO thing came out. Of corpse there was and still is a lot of Cabbalistic study in the lyricswork but I think it comes more from Rob’s love of “Legion” by Deicide than anything else (however things might have developed in the meantime, who knows). But still, I really loved Centurian‘s lyrics and I am sure these are at least as much if not more cool to read.

I will mention Centurian for the fifth time now because Nox is indisputably taking unholy life from where that band ended – hell the first song is even titled Choronzonic Chaos Gods. I guess Wim was too old to keep up with all the shit after marrying ehe (are you listening, hairball?), because I see no other reason in changing the band’s name but not its style. Nevertheless these years have not been unproductive. Things are even more hectic than ever before now, the riffs are so multifaceted and complex, an endless spiral of fractal razor blades whipping around in a maelstrom of screams, blast beats and untainted blasphemies. You can hardly find anything more grandiosely elaborate but at the same time so incredibly ferocious in today’s Death Metal. The singer’s vocals are still violent outbursts of rabid cruelty rather than undemanding routine pig squeals, and well, all of this album is just plain flawless. A perfect blend of aesthetics, music and concept. Nox is nihilistic, destructive tentacular Death Metal in its purest form. Tight as fuck drumming, extremely personal riffs and solos, great vocals. I really cannot think of anything better. At this level of intricacy, I don’t even find the heart of complaining about the overproduction, because you cannot really demand to add more filth to an album like this without losing something in the process. If there is one Death Metal album you have to get this year, this is it (add in Necros Christos and Angelcorpse while you’re at it, though).